A Very Happy and Productive New Year to all!
CUTS has been sending different e-newsletters to share information on various issues. Receiving large number of such mails may overload your inbox.
To overcome this inconvenience, in this New Year, we are starting this new series of a comprehensive fortnightly e-bulletin highlighting the key elements of the bouquet of E-newsletters published by CUTS during the fortnight and news on other relevant issues.
If you wish to unsubscribe, please scroll down to the bottom of this newsletter for more information.
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WHAT’S NEW AT CUTS
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US threat to world trade liberalisation
Letter to Editor, Financial Times, 24th Dec. 02 by Mr. Pradeep S. Mehta
Sir, The diseased mindset of the US pharmaceuticals industry lobby could well derail one of the crucial development aspects of the Doha round of the World Trade Organisation: the flexibility aspects of trade-related intellectual property rights and public health. It will not only reinforce the comments by sceptics who questioned the word "development" in the Doha agenda but also marshal forces that are inimical to the whole trade liberalisation agenda. That will be bad for both rich and poor in the world.Supachai Panitchpakdi, WTO director-general ("World trade must not be tripped up by drugs", December 16) has expressed his deep anxiety about the non-resolution of the issue of access to life-saving medicines by countries without production facilities among other important issues such as special and differential treatment. These are holding up progress in the negotiations at Geneva.
In trying to balance his views, Mr Supachai also argues about the protection of patent rights, without which the billions of dollars required for research will not be forthcoming. This is a flawed argument, because the pharmaceuticals industry invests in research from current revenues, which have been raised from its existing customers, not future ones. Of course it is cyclical - but the industry is not involved in charity.
Turning to fundamental issues, many have argued about the validity of the TRIPs agreement in the WTO. Protagonists argue that if TRIPs were not there, the US would walk out of the WTO. So what if it does? Its "ugly American" behaviour causes enough problems anyway, whether at Geneva or out of Washington. For example - and this has not been reported widely - when Iran's application for observer status at the WTO came up at the general council meeting in October, the US delegate shot it down with words to the effect that the US did not even have to give any reasons for its objection.
As a share of the world trade, in 2001 US imports accounted for 18.3 per cent and exports for 11.9 per cent. On the other hand, the European Union's share was 36.26 per cent for imports and 37.16 per cent for exports. Not that the EU is incapable of unfair action; but at least it does not throw its weight around in a crass manner. Thus the one of the ways forward for the Doha agenda is to get the TRIPs out of the WTO and dispatched to the World Intellectual Property Organisation where it belongs.
20 YEARS OF CUTS, A CELEBRATION!
Theme: Governance and its Relationship with Poverty Reduction
Consumer Unity & Trust Society is organising a Partnership Conclave to celebrate its 20th Anniversary from 12-14 March 2003 at New Delhi.
The purpose of the Conclave is to look at rights-based approaches on issues of governance, which affect development, in particular poverty reduction. The Conclave would be a forum for civil society, media, academia, policy makers and other stakeholders across the world.
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E-NEWSLETTERS
CUTS-Conclave Newsletter
Issue # 4
From confrontation to collaboration: Civil society-Government-World Bank relations in Brazil. The case analyses the relation of Civil Society with emphasis on NGOs, Government and the Bank, advantages of promoting closer collaboration, and necessary steps to further improve these relations.
Various such interesting case studies will be presented at the Conclave. Further, panel discussions on major policy debates such as Beyond Johannesburg, Doha to Cancun, Countdown To 2015, will be held to bring experience and expertise of participants to the table.
For an update and complete list of our distinguished speakers and the programme agenda, please go to:
CUTS-CITEE Linkages Update on news and views about Trade and Non-Trade Issues
Issue # 15
Now after almost seven years of the post-WTO period, among the various non-trade issues the issue of labour standards still remains one of the most vexed one.
Have the low-level standards in poor countries resulted in ‘race to the bottom’ and ‘unfair competitive advantage’? How should the international community move forward in the present scenario?
7 UpDate on Competition and Regulation Issues
Issue # 7
Merger evaluation, although an integral component of competition law enforcement in most jurisdictions, remains a hotly debated issue. Some even question the very existence of it, especially in developing countries. The USA and EU have agreed to examine mergers simultaneously, but what about the developing world, which often have little control on international mergers, but suffer their consequences.
IFD Enews – About Investment Policy and Practices
Issue # 5
Regulation should be in the “public interest”. But when it comes to the so-called ‘regulation’ of the foreign investor, the rationale seems to be the opposite. This issue tries to do something different, regulate the regulated, not the regulator.
CUTS-ARC Sounds from CUTS Africa Resource Centre
Issue # 5
Hardly a few weeks after the streets of Washington DC saw mass anti-globalisation demonstrations against the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB), Zambia is rife with discontent for the “exploitative and unsustainable” policies of the two Bretton Woods institutions.
A number of workers’ unions and other civil society organisations staged a demonstration on the 14th of December 2002 to halt the impending privatisation of Zambia’s sole nationally owned commercial bank, the Zambia National Commercial Bank (ZNCB).
The demonstration, staged under the Campaign “Save Our Last Parastatals”, was to further protest against the sale of the other remaining nationally-owned organisations; particularly the Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation (ZESCO) and the Zambia Telecommunications (ZamTel) Company.
The 5th Estate - Electronic bulletin on CUTS’ Project titled “Promoting State Accountability and Citizen’s Empowerment through Budget Analysis”
Issue # 18
This issue focuses on schemes related to employment generation and bonded labour, being implemented by the Government of Rajasthan, India.
The steady growth in population and increasing number of educated person requires greater attention to be paid on employment front. Programmes carrying significant potential for removal of poverty and creation of employment opportunities have been given importance in the Rajasthan State’s Plan, so that additional employment/self employment opportunities are created.
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FORTHCOMING EVENTS:
- 27 January 2003, Mumbai, India
Workshop on Grassroots Reachout and Networking in India on Trade and Economics
A five year work programme with the overall objective of creating long-term capacity of civil society organisations and others to address trade and economic issues and their relationship with development and poverty reduction. This is seventh in the series of such seminars to be held in India.
Third Indian National Reference Group Meeting on Investment for Development
The National Reference Group under the Investment for Development project will meet to discuss the research produced under the project, and to discuss the recommendations for the Indian investment policy that have been prepared by the Indian project partners. The recommendations from this meeting will feed into the National Advocacy Document that will be produced under the project.
- 28 January 2003, Mumbai, India
Seminar on Competitiveness of Indian Industries in the WTO Era with a special focus on Textiles and Clothing
This seminar focuses on the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing and also the provisions of Anti-Dumping, Safeguards, Rules of Origin and the Dispute Settlement Mechanism. As an outcome of this seminar, the participants will be able to understand the background of the movement from GATT to the WTO and to get insight into the essentials of modern trade diplomacy.
- 17-18 February 2003, Geneva, Switzerland
Final meeting of the International Working Group on Doha Agenda (IWOGDA)
At the meeting the Synthesis Report on Elements of a Possible Multilateral Agreement on Competition and Investment will be presented. The synthesis report will explain the issues on Competition and on Investment as spelt out in paras 20-25 in the Doha Declaration and attempts to simplify these issues for the trade community.
19 February 2003, Geneva, Switzerland
Symposium on Competition Policy and Pro-poor Development
The results of the 7-Up Project, a comparative study of competition regimes of seven developing countries in the Commonwealth, namely, India, Kenya, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Zambia, with the support of DFID, UK, would be presented at the Symposium. The research conducted under the study has thrown up some very interesting findings and pristine data, which we intend to present under the following broad agenda that would address three main questions:
1)How does competition policy and law help the poor?
2)What type of a competition law should a country have?
3)How do developing counties deal with cross border issues?
20 February 2003, Geneva, Switzerland
Launch meeting of the International Network of Civil Society Organisations on Competition (INCSOC)
The 7-Up project revealed the need for building the competence of various stakeholders especially civil society so that the competition regime at the national level could be strengthened. With this aim the network (INCSOC) would aim to promote and maintain a healthy competition culture around the world by coalition building among civil society and other interested organisations.
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ARTICLES
New Competition Regime – Better Resources and Will, Called for
The Hindu Business Line, 10 January, 2003
Parliament has rendered yeoman service to consumers in India by adopting the most modern competition law just before it went into recess. But the parliament did not address the million-dollar question of providing the necessary resources to have an effective law.
By resources is meant not only money but also other tangibles and intangibles, such as personnel and systems to promote the law. This article is an attempt at designing a roadmap that can ensure its success.
Between Farm & Pharma, Nothing Special About Differential Treatment
The Financial Express, 06 January, 2003
Overall, the year 2002 ended on an extremely disappointing note for poor countries. First, the TRIPs and public health clarification ended in a stalemate.
Second, the issue of farm talks, did not move forward on their desire to liberalise more than what was agreed during the Uruguay Round.
Third, special and differential treatment (S&DTs) provisions to be made enforceable was stuck, the discussions on S&DT over the last few weeks were split into two thematic groups. The first focussed on coming up with a first basket of decisions for immediate action and the second thematic group dealt with how, and in what time frame, to proceed with the remaining issues.
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CUTS IN MEDIA:
Agriculture is key to Doha
Financial Times, 04 December, 2002
Experts concerned over low FDI inflow
The Financial Express, 25 November, 2002
Lets debate WTO partnerships
Zambia Daily Mail, 01 November, 2002
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PRESS RELEASE:
- Latin America Regional Seminar on ‘Investment for Development’, Sao Paulo, Brazil
- Mid-term review meeting of the EU-India Network Trade ND Development (EINTAD), Jaipur, India
Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS)
D-217, Bhaskar Marg, Bani Park, Jaipur 302 016, India
Phone: 91.141.220 7482, Fax: 91.141.220 7486 Email:
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